1891, May 28 – 1896, March 24: (Panama m Tonbe: The Hyppolite Boom, Reconstruction, and the Death on Horseback): On Fête-Dieu, May 28, 1891, some seventy reb…

1891, May 28 – 1896, March 24: (Panama m Tonbe: The Hyppolite Boom, Reconstruction, and the Death on Horseback): On Fête-Dieu, May 28, 1891, some seventy rebels stormed down Morne l’Hôpital into Port-au-Prince seeking to liberate hostages from the prison. Hyppolite took brief cover in the cathedral, then rallied his guards and counterattacked — but roused to insensible fury, he began rounding up enemies and ordering random victims shot, and by the American legation’s estimate at least 150 persons were massacred, with soldiers soon killing for pleasure or to settle old scores. The lesson sufficed: Hyppolite suffered no further coups. With both will and wherewithal from good times, Hyppolite proceeded with reconstruction — a domestic telegraph system, telephones, waterworks, markets and abattoirs, wharves, a new Chamber of Deputies, and long overdue, a marble monument to Dessalines. In September 1895, Port-au-Prince got its first ice plant. For the first time in Haitian history, Hyppolite brought to uninterrupted completion an important public work commenced by a predecessor — the iron bridge over the Momance River. Firmin as Foreign Minister reopened legations in London and Madrid, established full relations with Berlin, and secured Haiti’s first apostolic nuncio from the Vatican. But the Mephistophelean Frédéric Marcelin as Finance Minister presided over a carnival of contracts, concessions, and fine fiscal arithmetic that saw the public debt climb from $4.4 million in 1891 to over $25 million by 1895. Hyppolite kept the country in hand through a system of warlords known as députés militaires — Nord Alexis over the North, Jean-Jumeau over Gonaïves and the Artibonite, Antoine Simon over the South. On the night of March 15–16, 1896, Mérisier Jeannis and his rasoirs swooped on Jacmel, sacked the arsenal, and vanished back to Lafond. This was too much: on March 24, as dawn glowed over Pétionville, Hyppolite mounted his stallion and set out for Jacmel, but just short of Portail Léogâne he suddenly shuddered, slipped sidewise from his saddle, and fell dead of apoplexy before he hit the ground — his great gold watch stopped on impact and his fine panama was trampled in the mud. Afterward and to this day they sing the méringue: An sòtan lavil nan Jakmèl, Panamam tonbe…